The Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research is the most prominent international award in entrepreneurship research with a price sum of EUR 100,000.
De Soto’s analyses have had tremendous influence on policy throughout the world and were a main source of inspiration for the World Bank’s Doing Business program.
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Hernando de Soto
Peru
Institute for Liberty and Democracy
For developing a new understanding of the institutions that underpin the informal economy as well as the role of property rights and entrepreneurship in converting the informal economy into the formal sector.
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ILD in the News

Hernando de Soto

Peru

Institute for Liberty and Democracy

For developing a new understanding of the institutions that underpin the informal economy as well as the role of property rights and entrepreneurship in converting the informal economy into the formal sector.

Former US President Bill Clinton has described Hernando de Soto as “the world’s most important living economist.” Mr. de Soto visited Sweden in May 2017 to receive the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. In this pod he takes the listeners into the world where he grew up and tells us why he returned to Peru to start his today renowned think tank the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD). And he explains how property rights can eradicate poverty!

Q&A with economist Hernando de Soto Polar

It is not every day that a world-renowned economist touches down on Lebanese soil,but it should not surprise that such a formidable economist could deliver a presentation less than 24 hours after arriving in Beirut for the first time in his life. It might be expected that he would start with an exercise in affinity, by saying nice things about this country’s welcoming people and surprising allure. But, it was refreshing to meet an acclaimed economist who not only confesses to being no specialist on the local economy (only a fool would claim to understand the jungle that passes as Lebanon’s economy), but who has real expertise on the issues that matter in developing countries. Executive sat down with Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto Polar on the sidelines of an event organized by Banque BEMO at the Ecole Supérieure des Affaires.

There is good news for the world’s venture capitalists and poor alike – a new blockchain advocacy group, the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), was launched at the 2017 World Economic Forum late last week. Announced in Davos, Switzerland, the council will serve as a resource center, providing a forum for education, collaboration and partnerships with business and government. Originally developed for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain is a remarkable open-source software that records transactions chronologically and publicly.

At the Blockchain Summit, the renowned economist Hernando de Soto presented his plan to help citizens title their property, such as land and automobiles, through blockchain. If such systems were introduced worldwide, de Soto predicts they would help bring $20 trillion of what he calls “dead capital” into the world economy and lift millions out of poverty. Already there have been some first steps: in October, the Crown Prince of Dubai announced a project that would see all government documents secured on a blockchain by 2020.

The country of Georgia will introduce Blockchain technology in 2017 to enable citizens store and receive real estate extracts according to a report in Caucasus Business Week. Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani told the Business Contract.

Formed by The Bitfury Group in collaboration with Covington - Major Launch Event Will Bring Together Global Leaders and Innovators:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – January 4, 2017 – The Bitfury Group, the leading global full-service Blockchain technology company, announced today that in collaboration with international lawfirm Covington, it is launching the first ever Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) around the World Economic Forum 2017 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland this January.

"Forget the details, all the facts that are needed to be able to see what belongs to whom, and have the degree of certainty that you need to make transactions in a market economy remain to be done," said Hernando de Soto, an economist from Peru who has researched property rights and their relationship to economic development.

In the 14th edition of the World Bank's Doing Business report, ILDs Hernando de Soto was recognized for his influential work that led to the formulation of the annual report. The 2017 edition of the report includes a writeup in the forward section talking about De Soto's initial research in Peru, where he opened a small garent business. Here is an abstract:

Hernando de Soto, of the Instituto Libertad y Democracia, in Peru, whose offices were bombed twice, and the late Ljubo Sirc (1920-2016), working with the resistance in most Soviet satellites, are prime examples. De Soto has been particularly active in showing how market incentives, implemented from the bottom up, but facilitated by regulatory simplification, helped win the war against terrorists in Peru. He recommends similar policies in Colombia and the Middle East.

Hernando De Soto, the greatest proponent of physical property rights, stated in the report that property rights are crucial in establishing a climate conducive to economic prosperity and freedom within a country.